Plumularia filicula Allman 1877

Plumularia filicula Allman, 1877

(Fig. 12D)

Plumularia filicula Allman, 1877: 29–30, pl. XVIII, fig.1–2; Fraser, 1944: 344–345, pl. LXXIV, fig.332; Ramil & Vervoort, 1992: 183–186, fig. 47A–E.

Plumularia cf filicula: Ansín Agís et al., 2014: 804–806, fig. 8.

Not Plumularia filicula: Hirohito, 1995: 275, fig. 94A; Vervoort & Watson, 2003: 393–394, fig. 95C–F.

Material examined. MAURIT-0911, stn MUDR 01, 16º08´24”N, 16º57´12”W, 488 m, 5-XII-2009: 42 colonies, one colony growing on Nemertesia freiwaldi n. sp., one on Lafoea gracillima, four on Aglaophenia lophocarpa; one colony with gonothecae.

MAURIT-0911, stn MUDR02, 16º08´50”N, 16º57´01”W, 462 m, 5-XII-2009: two colonies, without gonothecae.

MAURIT-0911, stn MUDR07, 18º35´40”N, 16º43´12”W, 460 m, 12-XII-2009: two colonies, no gonothecae.

MAURIT-1011, stn MUDR 20, 16º08´11”N, 16º56´08”W, 405 m, 7-XII-2010: eleven colonies, 18–22 mm high, two growing on Lophelia pertusa and one on Polyplumaria flabellata; no gonothecae.

MSM 16/3, stn GeoB 14886–1, ROV, 18°39.013’– 18°38.476’N, 16°43.580’– 16°43.757’W, 484–640 m, 12-XI- 2010: two colonies 7 mm high, one on Acesta excavata and one on Madrepora oculata; no gonothecae.

MSM 16 /3, stn GeoB 14903–1, GKG, 17°32.853’N, 16°39.700’W, 414 m, 15.XI.2010: one colony 24 mm high, growing on a sponge, without gonothecae.

Biology. This species has been found growing on a polychaete tube (Ramil & Vervoort 1992). Fertile material has been collected in June (Allman 1877; Fraser 1944; Ramil & Vervoort 1992).

The colonies studied by us were collected from different substrata, such as sponges, hydroids, the corals M. oculata and L. pertusa and the bivalve A. excavata. Gonothecae were recorded for the first time in December.

Distribution. Plumularia filicula is an amphi-Atlantic species reported from the Ibero-Moroccan Gulf in the East and the coast of USA in the West Atlantic; records in the Pacific Ocean are considered dubious and need further confirmation (Ansín Agís et al. 2014). In West Africa, it was collected from Morocco (Ramil & Vervoort 1992) and Mauritania (Gil & Ramil 2017a). Its bathymetric distribution extends from 146 to 1318 m (Ramil & Vervoort 1992).

Our material was collected from depths of 405 and 640 m.

Remarks. Disposition of the hydrocladia in the same plane, the first ahydrothecate internode with one nematotheca, long internodes and morphology of the gonothecae allowed us identify these colonies as P. filicula (see Ramil & Vervoort 1992).